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BigBasket.com (Innovative Retail Concepts Private Limited) is
Indias largest online food and grocery store. With over 10,000
products and over a 1000 brands in our catalogue you will find
everything you are looking for. Right from fresh Fruits and
Vegetables, Rice and Dals, Spices and Seasonings to Packaged
products, Beverages, Personal care products, Meats we have it
all.Choose from a wide range of options in every category,
exclusively handpicked to help you find the best quality available
at the lowest prices. Select a time slot for delivery and your
order will be delivered right to your doorstep, anywhere in
Bangalore, Mumbai & Hyderabad. You can pay online using your
debit / credit card or by cash / sodexo on delivery. We guarantee
on time delivery, and the best quality! Happy Shopping!
Bigbasket.com allows you to walk away from the drudgery of
grocery shopping and welcome an easy relaxed way of browsing and
shopping for groceries. Discover new products and shop for all your
food and grocery needs from the comfort of your home or office. No
more getting stuck in traffic jams, paying for parking, standing in
long queues and carrying heavy bags get everything you need, when
you need, right at your doorstep. Food shopping online is now easy
as every product on your monthly shopping list, is now available
online at BigBasket.com, Indias best online grocery store.
How do I order??
1. Browse bigbasket.com for products or use the search
feature.
2. Add items to your shopping basket
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3. Choose a convienient time slot for your delivery.
4. Select a suitable payment option. (cash, sodexo, credit card)
and your products will be home delivered as per your order.
Currently operating in the cities of Mumbai, banglore and
Hyderabad.
Like Hemrajani, VS Sudhakar and five other friends launched
online retail website Fabmart in 1999. Though a few early adopters
used the service, they were ahead of the curve and could not move
the mass market in terms of volumes. The dotcom bubble burst
worsened the scene. "We underestimated the situation," says
Sudhakar, who was the first chief executive at India's first
internet services company Planetasia.com.He kept the online
business on backburner but continued running it in a small way and
put all the energies on physical retail chain of grocery stores
under the brand name of Fabmall, which merged with another grocery
retail chain Trinethra.Seven years later, the chain was acquired by
the Aditya Birla Group after the venture reached to 200 stores
across Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala. Last year,
Sudhakar returned to his
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original idea of selling grocery onlinea $1-billion opportunity
following a casual conversation with serial entrepreneur Krishnan
Ganesh. He launched online grocery store BigBasket.com in December
last year along with Fabmart co-founders Hari Menon, Vipul Parekh,
VS Ramesh and Abhinay Choudhari. Ganesh also became an angel
investor in the firm.Within a few months of the launch,
ChrysCapital co-founder Raj Kondur, who had invested $4 million in
Fabmart, dialled in Sudhakar again. Kondur, who had joined Ascent
Capital, led a first round funding of $10 million in BigBasket,
three months after the startup was launched. BigBasket now delivers
food items such as fruits, vegetables, bakery, dairy products,
frozen foods and toiletries to over 15,000 customers in
Bangalore.The startup's network, which relies on a fleet of Omni
vans to deliver products, aims to expand the service to cities such
as Hyderabad and Mumbai by the end of this year.
BANGALORE/MUMBAI: India's "enterprising couple" K Ganesh and
Meena Ganesh, who last year sold their venture education services
firm TutorVista to Pearson Group for Rs. 577 crore, has lined up a
slew of e-commerce investments. The duo will unfurl their
co-promoter stakes in four different ecommerce start-ups in the
coming weeks, including an e-grocer BigBasket.com, which is first
off the block.Ganesh and Meena will join hands with the country's
e-commerce pioneers who floated FabMart.com the poster boys of
first generation dotcom boom a decade ago to promote BigBasket for
e-tailing of groceries, staples, fruits, vegetables and other
perishables.India's second brush with e-commerce has not had any
big online grocery play till now, with the leading store chains
like Big Bazaar and Reliance Fresh not making significant digital
moves. The duo's other investments will include online jewellery
store Bluestone, book store BookAdda and a trip planning and travel
sharing site Must See India. Most of these are 'platform deals'
where the two would work with professional entrepreneurs to roll up
e-commerce engines. Earlier, Meena spearheaded global retailer
Tesco's plans to for a tech hub in India in 2004.Global venture
capitalists have invested $1 billion in the domestic digital
consumer story as the number of internet consumers could double
from the current 120 million within three years. Ganesh said: "I am
quite bullish on e-grocery online. London-based pure-play online
grocer Ocado became hugely successful and it went public sometime
ago. Tesco.com reports $3-billion revenues from online grocery
sales. I have been observing this space sometime now." He declined
to comment on the other e-commerce investments at present.FabMart
and FabMall (a physical store chain sold to Aditya Birla)
co-founders V S Sudhakar, Hari Menon, Vipul Parekh and V S Ramesh
are the other promoters of the venture. They have also rolled up a
small e-grocery firm, shopasyoulike, set up by IIM-A alumnus
Abhinav Chaudhari some 20 months ago.Sudhakar, a partner, said, "To
start, our services are launched in Bangalore, with 50 delivery
vans and six warehouses. We will enter four more cities this year
and would have covered 20 cities in the next couple of years."
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BigBasket will be raising $6 million from venture capitalists to
ramp up warehousing, cold chain and logistics facilities. "The
success of this business model lies in the effective marrying of
technology, internet, domain knowledge and logistics," Ganesh
added.Grocery e-tailing is a complex business unlike selling books.
On average, Amazon sells 1.6 SKUs (stock keeping units) of books
while the figure is 12 SKUs in grocery sales. It is about handling
high volume, uneven packages like say a 100gm pack of chilly power,
half a dozen eggs, 25 kilo of sona masuri rice or a litre of
cooking oil. BigBasket is offering delivery of orders within six
hours. The domestic online grocery market has a few smaller
players, and BigBasket's differentiator may be the 'scale with
speed' plans.Ganesh and Meena are working on similar ramp-ups for
their other e-commerce investments. The online jewellery store, for
instance, has already received a funding commitment from a Silicon
Valley investor. Their two other investments BookAdda and Must See
India will be entering a market where there are already
well-entrenched rivals.
Connaught Place, bang in the heart of Delhi, isnt normally the
kind of place where youd expect an online grocer to set up shop.
Real estate is prohibitively expensive, traffic and parking can be
maddening and its far away from Gurgaons dense and rich urban
jungle.Yet, that is where Aaramshop, one of the fastest growing
online grocers currently is headquartered.It can afford to do so
because, unlike most of its peers, it has no need for large
warehouses, call centres to take orders, engineers or logistics
staff. It has just 12 employees.Yet, it home delivers grocery
orders in over 25 cities.In comparison, BigBasket, that serves just
Bangalore city, has over 120 employees, three distribution hubs and
25 delivery vans.Aaramshops secret: It does not source, stock or
deliver any or the products ordered by customers. Instead, it acts
as the internet face for any neighbourhood grocery store (kiranas)
that signs up with it.Customers who log in to Aaramshop must select
the kirana store nearest to them before ordering any products.
Within seconds, Aaramshop relays the order via SMS and email to the
kirana. And within hours the kirana delivers the order, with the
customer paying in cash. The average order size a kirana gets
through Aaramshop is around Rs. 570, says Singh, compared to Rs.
100 when customers were directly calling them up.
Margins arent the only aspect that makes grocery e-commerce so
tough to pull off: Customers expect 24-hour delivery. That entails
maintaining your own warehouses, significant inventory, and
delivery vehicles and staff. A centralised Amazon or Flipkart-style
warehouse using third-party couriers is out of the question. Add
perishables like fruits, vegetables or meats into the equation and
the supply chain costs and risks increase exponentially. Finally,
the scale of FMCG distribution and the high service levels of the
neighbourhood kirana (who will often home-deliver even one or two
items at no extra charge) set impossibly high benchmarks to
beat.
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hese factors forced Singh to give conventional wisdom a go-by
when it comes to revenue. Instead of charging a commission from
either its customers or the kirana stores, he charges FMCG brands
for running promotions and marketing campaigns on its website.
Singh believes FMCG companies dont have the last mile connect with
their customers in spite of being the largest ad spenders in the
country. Aaramshop is the platform that he sells to them as the
solution.Which is why in just our eighth month of business were
close to breakeven, he says.BEEN THERE, HEARD THATBigBaskets is a
more conventional approach in the sense that it relies on its own
warehouses. Yet, its strategy is disruptive: It includes multiple
warehouses and inventory; a wide range of over 6,000 stock-keeping
units (SKUs) including fruits, vegetables and meats; and plans to
expand to five cities in the first year and 12 in the second.Weve
been hearing the kirana argument back since we were starting our
chain of supermarkets, says VS Sudhakar, 52, co-founder of
BigBasket.Sudhakar was one of the co-founders of Fabmart.com,
arguably Indias first e-commerce website (it currently operates as
Indiaplaza.com), back in 1999. When Fabmart fell victim to the
dotcom crash, he started a chain of supermarkets in Bangalore under
the Fabmall brand in 2002. Those got sold in 2004 to
Hyderabad-based Trinethra Super Retail in 2004, which subsequently
got acquired by the Aditya Birla group in 2007 and became part of
its More chain.Having tilted at Indias dysfunctional retail
realities for well over a decade, Sudhakar certainly isnt a
greenhorn.Tell me, if most Indians love to buy from kirana stores,
why would modern retail take off? he asks.He has a point. According
to the latest data from global information and measurement company
Nielsen, in just over a decade modern retail chains have captured
from kiranas nearly a third of the market share in home, personal
care and food products in 17 of the biggest urban markets.Besides,
says Sudhakar, Im not replacing the kirana, but the need to go to a
supermarket!Head to head with modern retailers, I figure we can
save 10 percent in costs because things like rent, utilities, staff
and shrinkage simply dont exist at the last mile for us. And
compared to their 3 percent net [profit] margins, I think we can
get to 6-7 percent, he says.By virtue of the location and
experience of its founders, and given the citys comfort with modern
retail, BigBasket currently operates only in Bangalore.Isnt that
too small a potential market?Apparently not. Because BigBasket
maintains that the monthly grocery spends in the city range from
Rs. 400-500 crore, of which modern retail accounts for nearly Rs.
150 crore. Even assuming BigBaskets target is only the latter,
thats an annual market of nearly Rs. 1,800 crore.Armed with oodles
of venture funding, experience and derring-do, BigBasket is leaving
no stones unturned in its race to capitalise on what it sees as the
last great frontier in the Indian e-commerce story.Customers can
order either via the web or phone. Orders are then automatically
fulfilled either from its own inventory or via partners.
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Currently BigBasket stocks most provisions (which it cleans and
packages under its own brand) while most fruits and vegetables are
sourced twice daily from wholesale mandis or Safal, and FMCGs from
Metro Cash & Carry. It claims to be shipping nearly 400 orders
a day with an average order ranging between Rs. 1,000-1,100.Its a
model that will evolve as volumes grow. Over time we will increase
the number of vendors for both fruits and vegetables and FMCG
products such that any time an ordered item should be available
from vendor A, B or C and our technology will automatically route
it appropriately, says Sudhakar.Orders are delivered either the
same day or at worst, the day after. The person delivering the
order is equipped with a tablet PC on which he enters a unique code
that is SMS-ed to customers, in order to track delivery times. The
tablet also lets him map routes or take instant feedback.Even with
all of this, Sudhakar says BigBasket is aiming to break even in
Bangalore within 12 months when his daily order volume hits
1,000.HOLY GRAIL TO HOLY SMOKEIn many ways grocery is the Holy
Grail of online commercea category where significant amounts of
money are spent in every household, week after week, buying the
same set of products. Most consumers have no desire to waste their
time driving to a store, walking through aisles and standing in
crowded checkout counters.In theory its a category ripe for digital
disruption.Yet multiple failed experiments in country after country
over the last decade have proved that theory is near impossible to
implement.To begin with, profitability must be built into the DNA
of an online grocer right from day 1. For, while a website can sell
books or mobile phones at a slight loss in the hope of winning a
customer over the long run, in groceries the razor-thin margins
rule that option out.Over a period of time, profitability must
cover three milestones: At the unit (order) level, at the customer
level and the business level.There arent too many synergies a firm
will get by spreading to multiple cities, unlike say, a Flipkart
that can service literally the entire country from a few centrally
located warehouses. In fact, early and aggressive expansion is
exactly what destroyed firms like Webvan. Business models need to
be proven and profits need to be generated at a city, or even a
locality level.Another sure-fire way to crash and burn is spending
too much on acquiring new customersusually the biggest cost element
for an online grocer.The way to avoid this is to resist the urge to
splurge on generic TV or web advertising and instead run targeted
local advertising on, say, radio and below-the-line promotions
within specific areas.Judiciously choosing which products to stock
themselves and which ones to purchase after consumer orders, is
another critical area. Unsold inventory is a slow and sure poison
that can kill even mature businesses.Being technology-driven
businesses, there is also the tendency to overestimate its
abilities and hence, overspend. One of Webvans most vivid acts
before going belly up was to place a $1 billion order to build a
warehouse!
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The final tripping point is the cost of delivering orders.
Thanks to the low benchmarks set by kirana stores and other
e-commerce websites for home delivery, online grocers have to
deliver large and heavy orders for free or at best, Rs. 20-30.Where
the cookie crumbles is the cost of logistics which makes sense only
when scaled up over, say, a five year period. The margins in this
category are so low that you literally run out of money the moment
youve travelled 5 kilometres to deliver an order, says Future
Groups Mall.Fingers burnt and lessons learned, Mall now believes
the only model that will work in India is a network of physical
stores integrated through a centralised online order booking
system. He says Future Group will have such an operation
shortly.Then there are risks beyond anyones control: If one madman
gets funded by a mad VC and plays the discounting game, that might
derail the entire sector for two-three years.Thankfully there dont
seem to be any such madmen around.As for Ascent, the company it has
chosen to fund is run by a bunch of battle-hardened retail veterans
and a canny entrepreneur with a Midas touch.In two years we want to
be Rs. 100 crore in revenue. How many e-commerce companies have
done that in India? asks Sudhakar.
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BigBasket Groceries at your Doorstep
We are only a generation ahead of those who had to walk miles to
get their basic amenities. Growing Internet usage, online shoppers
and Younger population might have prompted few business minds to
see this as a big opportunity. As a result, many start-ups rushed
in but could not expand into a larger scale and eventually
failed.
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Sensing the market space, Bigbasket was born as a brainchild of
entrepreneurs by VS Sudhakar, Hari Menon, Vipul Parekh and VS
Ramesh. The profiles of these people (they had set up Indias first
e-commerce site FabMart.com in 1999, and then established the
Fabmall-Trinethra chain of more than 200 grocery supermarket stores
in southern India) invited venture capitalists and Ascent Capital
was more than to be happy to invest $10 million.
Making headlines all over the country of being the first online
grocery retailer to get funded by an institution, it had quickly
established itself as the e-grocery company with its own logistics
service currently operating only in Bangalore.
BigBasket offers over 6,000 products in all categories and
claims to have 32 orders with average billing of Rs.1200. The
company has 50 delivery vans and six warehouses. The e-grocer just
launched operations in Bangalore and plans to expand to the top
five metros by the year end. It had already set up plans for
Hyderabad.
Targeting the right people:
It is important for any organization to know its customers and
its target audience.
Bangalore consists of 63.2% of people less than 28 years old.
With demanding MNC jobs and Post Graduate courses, they do not want
to go out shopping. They want comfort in an affordable manner.
Talking of the MNC jobs, we have families that consist of
working husbands and wives. Elder people find it hard to stand in
long queues of supermarkets. Though, this segment is relatively
on
the small scale, says its CEO Mr.Hari Menon.
Pricing and Delivery:
It had affordable pricing compared to that of prevailing
supermarkets and hypermarkets. You can place the order and it will
be delivered in two slots the following day.
They operate in four slots:
S1 7am to 9am S2 11am to 1pm S3 3pm to 5pm S4 7pm to 10 pm
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They check their orders at 6 AM and 1 PM every day. Orders
placed until then are fit into the slots according to the customers
convenient time. They have 3 Hubs in Yashwanthpur, Bannerghatta
Road and Whitefield from where the orders are displaced to the
customers.
All these facts said and done, BigBasket boasts of something
more; the employees are more dedicated and are passionate about the
organization.
Exceeding their expectations within two quarters, BigBasket is
set for bigger heights operating in untapped market. And also with
an early mover advantage and an experienced top management team,
BigBasket has the potential to be the NEXT BIG THING in the fast
growing e-commerce industry.
Bigbasket.com has ranked #33,351 in the world according to Alexa
website ranking. Bigbasket.com has Google pagerank #3. The
estimated website net worth based on it's traffic value and online
website advertisement revenue alone is around $72,232.
Bigbasket.com receives 32,983 pageviews per day and generates
nearly $98.95 in daily ad revenue. Bigbasket.com has recently shown
a 3.24% in growth in the traffic rank. The average page load time
is 1 seconds, which is faster than 62% of sites around the world.
Bigbasket.com haswebsite backlinks from #163 website. Bigbasket.com
has a popular site score rating of 2 out of 5 Stars. Bigbasket.com
appears to be hosted in Singapore. Bigbasket.com hosted on
linode.com.
Delivery InformationBigBasket.com's delivery systems are
uniquely designed to provide you the abiliy to selecta convenient
time to receive your purchases either during the day or night. You
can pre-bookyour delivery slot during check-out and be assured that
the goods will be deliveredas per your booked slot. To maintain the
freshness and quality of frozen,chilled & fresh food we have
equipped our delivery van's with multitemperature reefer units and
cold storage devices which maintainsfrozen and chilled range
temperatures.
Delivery slot:BigBasket.com provides a unique service and
promise ofdelivering the goods in 2-3 hour window based on
thedelivery slot selected by you. This ensures certainty andaids in
planned purchase of your household needs and eliminates longwaits
staying at home without knowing the exact time of delivery or even
missing your delivery. You can choose to receive your order the
same day in the 4:30 pm to 7 pm or 7:30 pm to 10 pm slot or on any
day upto 6 days from the date of placing the order. Currently we
offer 4 delivery slots in a day; 7 am to 9:30 am, 10 am to 12:30
am, 4:30 pm to 7 pm & 7:30 pm to 10 pm.You can check the
availability and book your delivery slot at the time of checking
out. For your convenience we make deliveries on all 7 days in a
week and 365 days a year with no holidays!
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Order Cutoff time:In order to facilitate timely picking and
delivery of all orders we follow a cutoff time for each delivery
slot.To be able to pick a delivery slot the order needs to be
placed before the cut-off time for that particular delivery slot.
The cut-off times for delivery slots are given below:
Delivery Slot Cut off time
7 am - 9:30 am1 pm the previous day
10 am - 12:30 pm 1 pm the previous day4:30 pm - 7 pm 6 am the
same day7:30 pm - 10 pm 6 am the same dayFor e.g. Customers placing
orders after the cut-off time of 6 am on any day would not be able
to book for delivery the same day in the 7-9:30 pm slot.
Delivery Charges:We levy very nominal charges for the delivery
of the orders and the delivery charge is based on the order value
as per the table below:
Order value Delivery charges
Rs. 1000 and more Free Delivery
Upto Rs. 1000Rs. 20 (Rs. 25 in Mumbai)
Rammurthy's trip ended nearly twenty minutes later at the
doorsteps of a customer-- mother of a three-year-old who hates to
spend the little spare time she gets during weekends at the
supermarket. During the drive, the 28-year-old management graduate
, who now handles a small team for online retailer Bigbasket.com,
started explaining how his company manages to keep near-zero
inventory and fulfils hundreds of orders everyday.
Online food and grocery retailing, fairly mature in the West and
showing lot of potential in growth markets like China, has not been
able to capture the fancy of Indian shoppers yet. Things, however,
may be changing as a new generation of wellfunded online firms --
Bigbasket.com is a key example -- are using simple end-to-end
technology solutions to offer deep discounts on grocery items,
predict customer behaviour and keep a tight leash on expenses.
With technology playing a key role, they are trying to make a
dent in the estimated $343-billon food and grocery market in India.
For example, these firms use a supplychain technology that allow
customers to place orders through multiple channels and later
predict what a customer is likely to order.
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Combined with applications that track everything from the time
an order is placed to delivery and devices that help during
procurement, technology is helping these firms to make a compelling
and convenient offer to the tech-savvy shopper. For these online
retailers, the most important tech application is the ability to
predict customer behaviour which lets them reduce inventory and
thereby, cut costs.
For instance, while a traditional retailer might have to stock
his monthly offtake of atta at least three weeks in advance , an
online retailer ends up stocking it for less than two days. "That
is mostly analytics," says Ambuj Jhunjhunwala, the founder of
Mygrahak.com which sells food and grocery online in Delhi.
Predicting customer needs helps them to plan in advance and procure
based on needs.
Need-based procurement works ideally well with perishable goods
like food not to talk about saving expenses on storage space, which
is a large part of expenditure for a traditional retailer.
Analytics also involves knowing the customer better which helps
retailers to make tailor-made offers for customers and increase
sales. Online retailers can also eliminate a large part of their
frontline staff because customers usually help themselves.
Typically, large format brickand-mortar stores spend much of
their attention to figure out customer behaviour on the shopping
floor and arrange goods so that they catch customer attention. This
can now be automated as the platform generates enough data about
individual preferences. "You have complete control over knowing
what your customer is buying and great level of predictability. The
stickiness of forecasting can go up as you use technology to
predict," says Anand Ramanathan, Associate Director at KPMG.
Shoppers, whose experience of buying grocery online has been good,
tend to very loyal. For example, Asha Liju, a clinical research
professional from Bangalore buys her grocery online.
This is the second time I'm buying online because its simple and
saves me nearly 10 kilometres of travel," she says. Here again,
technology plays a key role. Grocery buying is mostly a repetitive
task something technology is known to do well. For instance, when a
shopper logs into the account, a history of previously bought items
makes it easier to pick instead of going through the motion all
over again.
"At each step, simple technology is helping us save time and
money," says Abhinay Choudhary, co-founder of Bigbasket.com.
Bigbasket.com, which now has 100 people on its rolls, will supply
anything from milk products to fresh fruits among 7,000 other items
at your doorstep at competitive prices within a few hours of
placing an e-order. "Our delivery vans even have cold storage
facilities. This is very new but if we do it right, it will be
big," says Choudhary. His earlier venture was shopasyoulike, a
similar food and grocery store catering to residents in Whitefield,
Bangalore. 25-year-old Jhunjhunwala's Mygrahak.com now claims that
they process nearly 15,000 orders a month. "The average order size
is Rs 1,250- Rs 1,300.
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Last June, when the e-commerce sentiment in India was high, five
individuals decided to make a dash for it. Their proposition,
though, wasnt fashion or white goods, but groceries: a category
four of them had ambitiously attempted in 1999 when they co-founded
Indias first online store FabMart.com, much ahead of market
readiness. However, this time when Hari Menon (50), Vipul Parekh
(48), VS Ramesh (55), and VS Sudhakar (51), the team behind
erstwhile FabMart.com (now Indiaplaza.in) reunited to launch an
e-grocery store, they knew the opportunity and timing was ripe for
success.Bengaluru-based BigBasket.com launched in December 2011
after raking in a fifth founding team member Abhinay Choudhari (41)
and his 12-month-old startup ShopasULike.com, also an e-grocery
store running as a pilot in Whitefield, Bengaluru. We got a
platform, processes, a team of 20, and some supplier relationships,
Menon, CEO and Head-Merchandising, BigBasket.com says explaining
the partnership, which didnt involve any exchange of money.By
February 2012, they raised Rs. 50 crore ($10 million) from PE fund
Ascent Capital, sufficient for three-four years and to take
business to Bengaluru, Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai and Hyderabad. This
is an atypical investment for us. We are looking at this as
organized retail rather than e-commerce, Raj Kondur, Partner, PE
fund Ascent Capital says.Stocking upIn six-odd months since
inception, business at the e-store has grown quite fast, thanks to
the vast experience and deep domain knowledge of the founders. It
currently services 400 orders a day (Bengaluru only), backed by an
inventory of 7,000 stock keeping units (SKUs) split across 129
categories. At an operational level, it works on a hub and spoke
model.The firms own warehouse to stock products will be operational
from August 2012, by which time it hopes to have 10,000 SKUs. Till
now, the startup has been sourcing goods daily which are sent to
its three sorting centers in Whitefield, Yeshwantpur and
Bannerghatta that together cover all four zones in the city. Here,
orders are segregated to be delivered to customers in company-owned
vehicles.We buy FMCG products from Metro cash and carry, fruits and
vegetables are sourced from Safal and our own suppliers in Hoskote.
For staples too, which we stock, weve set up our own supply chain,
says Menon. In case of unavailability, BigBasket.com buys directly
from the market. We want to work on getting fill rates right at the
moment, he says.Post-August 2012, BigBasket.com will go deeper into
the supply-chain as it starts sourcing directly from companies and
mills. This will change margin dynamics, affirms Kondur. For the
long term, the firm plans to increase warehouse space to 30,000
square feet capable of stocking 15,000 SKUs.This is a complex
category and execution-intensive, requiring both retail and
technology experience, a combination thats hard to find. This team
has 100 years of experience between founders, says K Ganesh, serial
entrepreneur and co-promoter BigBasket.com.Double challengeSo far,
Menon says, they are challenged on two fronts. The first and most
pressing is to get fill rates right, which currently stand at 90-95
percent for BigBasket.com. Consumers are expecting to get a 100
percent fill rate and that puts pressure on us. People buy online
for convenience and even if one item is short, they dont mind
purchasing everything offline, he highlights.Second is the problem
of suggesting alternatives for stock-outs and at present,
BigBasket.coms platform doesnt have the intelligence to do so. For
the time being, its tackling the issue by mentally preparing
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customers before delivery. Not surprisingly, the company has
invested heavily in technology, especially for back-end logistics.
A routing software helps them divide the number of orders serviced
by each van, which are fitted with GPRS systems to monitor movement
in real-time.Delivery boys carry tablets where customers punch in
PIN numbers to confirm receipt of order, says Choudhari, Head,
Customer Experience. Theres no minimum order value and they charge
Rs. 20 as delivery charges for orders up to Rs. 1,000. Anything
above this is delivered free. Customers have the option of four
time slots for delivery. We hope to touch 1,000 orders a day by
November 2012, Menon says.Customer demographicsFor 36-year-old
Amrita Paul, her first tryst with online shopping was on
ShopasULike.com, in end-2010, and she has continued as a customer
even after it rebranded as BigBasket.com. Ive encountered
stock-outs only twice and the teams always been quick to suggest
alternatives or take an order for the next day. They take great
care in selection of vegetables and fruits, which arrive
well-packed, says a satisfied Paul.Adds Harmeet Kaur who shops
weekly: They specially sourced a particular brand of ketchup I
requested for.Broadly, its customer demographics are reasonably
affluent, dual working households that purchase anywhere between
Rs. 1,000-5,000 worth of groceries every month. Theres no great
market for us in tier II or III cities yet, affirms Choudhari. In
Bengaluru, were finding it difficult to break the market in
categories like staples, where traditional households prefer going
to kirana stores they have a long-standing relationship with, Menon
admits.While its marketing efforts have been minimal, the firm has
been working around doling out free products, like rice, with the
aim of converting such customers.The startup is also targeting B2B
clients and has already acquired five thus far. Now keen to expand
its footprint further, BigBasket.com has picked Navi Mumbai and
Hyderabad as new markets to enter, initially, and has already
appointed respective heads to oversee operations. We chose one big
city and one small in the south. Bengalurus model can be
copy-pasted in Hyderabad or Chennai as these markets are similar.
Mumbai and Delhi are tough animals, Menon notes.Ganesh foresees
challenges in last mile delivery as they scale to other cities, but
Menon is optimistic given their investment in technology, a big
differentiator, in addition to the founders deep understanding of
the domain. When I go to 3,000 orders a day, I need to build
processes supported by technology to fulfil the demand, he
says.
E-grocery store BigBasket.com, currently operating in Bangalore,
intends to expand its footprint to
Mumbai and Hyderabad by October this year. It has further
expansion plans and by March 2013,
BigBasket will also cater to customers in Delhi and Chennai.
Talking exclusively to Techcircle.in, co-founder Hari Menon
said, The e-store model, as well as the
related systems and processes, will be the same as the Bangalore
one. But once we start operating
in other cities, we will have city-specific SKUs, apart from
common SKUs.
-
Right now, BigBasket has about 8,000 SKUs, but in the coming 5-6
months, the e-store will have
15,000 SKUs.
We will still focus on grocery, food, non-food and other FMCG
products. But there will be more
items in the household category, such as dinnerware, kitchenware
and more, said Menon.
Interestingly, the entire last-mile delivery is owned by
BigBasket, which has its own fleet
of 30 delivery vans. Currently, all the goods are stocked in a
Bangalore-based warehouse and
depending upon orders, these are transported to the nearest hub.
The company has three hubs, in
Whitefield, Bannerghatta and Yashwantpur, to cover the entire
city.
When it starts its operations in Mumbai, BigBasket will have a
registered office and a warehouse in
the city, as well as four hubs in Vasi, Goregaon, Mulund and
Bandra. In Hyderabad, too, it will
have a warehouse and an office besides three hubs located in
Shivapalli, Boyanapalli and
Kukatpally.
Once the company starts its operations in these cities, it will
have 20 delivery vans in Mumbai and
15 in Hyderabad. With an average order value of Rs 1,200-Rs
1,250, BigBasket claims to have 450
orders per day.
In March 2012, BigBasket raised $10 million in its first round
of funding from private equity firm
Ascent Capital. The transaction is believed to be the first
institutional investment in an online grocery
retailer and the largest Series A round in an e-tailing firm in
India. Prior to that funding, serial
entrepreneur couple K. Ganesh and Meena Ganesh (who sold
TutorVista to Pearson last year) also
invested in BigBasket.
The company is utilising the money for expanding to other
cities, enhancing technology, hiring new
talents and scaling up marketing activities. Currently a team of
150, BigBasket will hire more people
to increase its strength to 500 by the end of 2012.
We will be doing city-specific marketing as we are not operating
nationally. We will focus on below-
the-line (BTL) activities in malls and apartments besides poster
and banner campaigns, radio ads
and some print ads in local newspapers, added Menon.
However, in September 2011, they got together to launch the
grocery e-tailing business
BigBasket.com, roping in TutorVistas K. Ganesh and Meena Ganesh
as angel investors. The firm
has also raised $10 million from Ascent Capital, which marks the
first institutional investment in this
space and the largest series A round of funding in an e-commerce
firm.
-
BigBasket.com plans to add products like organic foods,
pesticide-free fruits and vegetables, exotic
cheese and frozen foods to its inventory, and also wants to
feature international brands. The
company will also introduce private labels across categories,
which will help it spread brand
awareness and increase margins.
BigBasket.com plans to scale profitably and sees margins
improving as it moves across the value
chain. At the peak level, when you are buying directly from
companies, this category will run at a
margin of 20-23 per cent, said co-founder and CEO Hari Menon in
an interview with VCCircle. Till
recently, Menon was the CEO of IndiaSkills, a joint venture
between Manipal Education and UKs
City & Guilds. Here are the excerpts:
What has changed since you started Fabmall in 1999?One
fundamental change is how users have adapted to the Internet as a
medium for shopping. The
fear associated with online shopping has reduced considerably
and in this category, a lot of sales
happen through cash on delivery (COD) and Sodexho coupons. Also,
people today are much more
focused on profitability. Earlier, they focused more on topline
and market valuation, driven by an exit
perspective. Scaling profitably is critical, though, and thats
how a player approaches a business
today, as compared to 1999. Plus, we are a lot more networked
now, being in this business for the
past 8-9 years.
How are you sourcing products across categories?Right now, we
are dealing in four broad categories. First is staples (rice, dal,
spices, etc.) and within
a month of starting operations, we have moved to private label.
We currently source these from the
mandis to one of our suppliers who cleans and packages those.
From mandis, we will move further
down the supply chain to the mills, and that is how your margins
keep rising.
One category, which will be a big differentiator for
BigBasket.com, is fruits and vegetables. But it will
be very difficult to crack. We have a farm-to-home concept where
we intend to get the produce
directly from the farms, without the intermediaries. Typically,
the produce stays at least 24 hours in a
store when you see it deteriorating. Right now, we are working
with Safal but over a period of time,
we will build our network of farming bodies and that will help
us ship directly to buyers.
Another growing category is frozen meat and dairy products. Then
there is FMCG foods and non-
foods (toiletries and personal care). Right now, we deal with
the distributors in these categories, but
over the time, we will move up the value chain. Currently, we
are working closely with Metro Cash &
Carry. But once we start building our volume, we will approach
these players directly. In fact, we will
start approaching the top 8-10 suppliers within the next 6-8
months.
-
We will also introduce private labels in categories like jams
and pickles, but that will be one year
down the line.
But what about the delivery model?The entire last mile is owned
by BigBasket.com. We have our own fleet of 50 vans, which are
being
commissioned for delivery. We follow a hub-and-spoke model where
all the goods are bought and
stocked in a warehouse (it will be built as the company moves
into direct purchase in the next 6-8
months). The warehouse will then supply to the hubs. We have
three in Bangalore in Whitefield,
Kanakpura and Yashwantpur and they cover the entire city. From
there, the delivery executives
(called customer experience managers) deliver the goods in four
time slots 7 am-9 am, 11 am-1:30
pm, 3 pm-5 pm and 7 pm-10 pm.
The funding we have raised will help us expand into four other
cities by December 2012. In the next
few months, we will crack the Bangalore model so that we can
replicate it in other cities (which are
yet to be decided).
How is the traction on the site? Whats your average billing?We
have launched the site on December 5; so its been a little over
three months. At present, we
average a little over 300 orders a day and the average value per
order is around Rs 1,200,
compared to Rs 300-400 for a physical store. This is because
customers come to us for monthly
purchase, which is a very sticky category. Customers visit us at
least twice a month and we expect
that to increase with the rise of fruits and vegetables sales.
As per the last count we have had, about
3,500 customers have shopped here at least once.
You said that when you started Fabmall, you looked at it as a
retail business. Do you feel the same about BigBasket.com?This is a
business which is much more retail and physical than any other
e-commerce business
because we have to operate warehouses, maintain hubs and a
supply chain, and will eventually deal
with more than 250 vendors and carry 7,000 SKUs (stock-keeping
units). So if you dont have the
retail ingrained and think that you just need e-commerce and
technology, youll be dead. You need
to understand supply chain really well to run this business.
How long a runway does the series A round give you?This round
should last us for three years. The whole concept is to scale up
profitably. We want to
expand to new cities and thats why the capital is required. From
an operational perspective, we
dont need much capital.
-
More than half a dozen start-ups have launched online grocery
stores in recent months. Working people, happy to have rice, sugar
and even organic pepper delivered to their doorstep, may wonder why
no one thought of it sooner. But egroceries are a tricky business.
The success of online book and gadget retailers is little reason to
assume that this sudden smorgasbord will fare well.
Says V S Sudhakar, cofounder, bigbasket.com, "we do not keep any
inventory. All orders received before
6:00 am are procured by 9:00 am and delivered by 3:30 pm. To
retain freshness of vegetables and fruits
we buy directly from the mandi (wholesale market) and that helps
us keep prices competitive." Besides,
"bigbasket's dump or wastage is low, as only what is ordered
online is procured and that helps keeps
costs under control," says Sudhakar.
Localbanya.com
It's a question that's been asked many times before - what is it
about the local kirana store that makes it almost impossible to
replace or replicate online? Many an entrepreneur, both in the West
and in India, has tried to crack this conundrum but crashed and
burnt. Retailing groceries is the Holy Grail of e-commerce with
good reason - margins are miniscule, logistics is a potential
nightmare and, worst of all, stocking and/or delivering a basket of
perishable goods to customers, sourced from different places, ASAP.
And if the fill rate is not 100 per cent - if the basket is not
full - customers usually switch back to making their purchases
offline. Rowing against the tide, a trio of friends has taken the
plunge with what they believe is a business model that will work
this time around. Thus, Mumbai's first online grocery
store,www.localbanya.com was launched by Karan Mehrotra, Amit Naik
and Rashi Choudhary in May 2012. Aimed at young working
professionals who have no time to spare, let alone shop for
groceries, Local Banya is especially popular among individuals aged
between 25 and 40. The Opportunity"I had been thinking of this
venture for a long time, and the success of e-commerce sites like
Flipkart and Bookmyshow encouraged me further," says Mehrotra,
adding that he expects his portal to break even by March-April
2013. Mehrotra, a computer engineer, was willy-nilly involved with
commerce early on, thanks to his family business which included
distribution for Hindustan Lever and catering services to BPOs. It
was only a matter of time before he roped in Amit Naik, a friend
and classmate from engineering college; and Rashi Choudhary, who
has an MBA in Service Management. The three of them seed-funded
their venture with close to Rs 70 lakh, which they raised from
personal savings. "Even before we began, we had generated some
interest in investor circles but decided against it as we wanted to
keep the controls with ourselves," reveals Mehrotra. The Revenue
ModelHere's the really tricky part - surviving in a failed market.
After extensive market research, Local Banya decided against an
inventory-based model, nor would it invest in delivery vehicles.
"Instead, we decided we would hold a very small inventory and forge
tie-ups with wholesalers and cash-and-carry partners
-
across the city. This brought down our capital investment by 70
per cent as we did not have to spend on warehousing or setting up a
retail outlet. Our only major cost to begin with was our server,"
reveals Mehrotra.Today, Local Banya has just-in-time partners for
fresh fruits and vegetables, and 100 strategic tie-ups with
retailers across the city. They also partner with offline retailers
such as Breadkraft, Bagelwala and Shor Sharaba, which are niche
stores. Local Banya has a different revenue-sharing deal with each
retailing partner, depending on brand and category. The e-grocer
currently offers 4,500 products and intends to take its product
suite to 10,500 by March 2013. As for delivery and dispatch, it has
14 delivery boys and four vehicles that are outsourced. It operates
out of only warehouse in the western suburb of Goregaon, where
dispatch takes place twice a day. Delivery to customers takes place
in five time slots, between 9 am and midnight.The EdgeLocal Banya
offers, not just bargain prices but spectacular deals and discounts
such as onions and potatoes for Rs 3 a kg. It also enjoys a
distinct price advantage even over discounted retail supermarts
such as D-Mart and Big Bazaar, as it does not spend on stocking or
retailing inventory. So it passes on this price advantage to
customers.The other edge over the competition is Local Banya's
strong customer service orientation. "Unlike other places, where
operations drive customer service, we have customer-service driving
operations. We have a core focus team that operates under Rashi.
The team knows every last detail of the products being sold and
also takes care of data management," adds Mehrotra.He draws
attention to a section on the portal that asks for suggestions on
products or perishable food items that are hard to find. "Once we
had a customer putting in a request for kafir mint leaves. We
managed to find it for him and now he is one of our loyal
customers!" beams Mehrotra.Naik, an ace engineer at the helm of all
technology operations at Local Banya, is another big asset. Under
his captaincy, processes are rapidly improving and the initial
hiccups of excessive dependence on wholesalers and cash-and-carry
partners have disappeared. Today, the start-up has systems in place
to carry out live mapping of inventory and on-time delivery is 97
per cent.Why Others FailedWebvan in the US was a basket case and
has, in fact, become a case study for failure in the e-grocery
space. This start-up used a capital-intensive, inventory-based
model, spent $1.2 billion on fully automated warehouses, and
invested oodles in delivery vans so they could deliver online
orders 24x7. The venture shut down less than two years. In the
physical domain, India has had its share of failed grocery store
formats like Sangam Direct, which was bought by Wadhwan Retail in
2010. It was a doomed marriage as the Wadhvan Retail grocery
outlets, christened Spinach, shut down very soon. Success
Stories?In the virtual domain, the Bangalore-based BigBasket.com
launched in December 2011 and has made brave strides. Using a
combination of a marketplace-cum-inventory based model, the portal
has expanded to Mumbai and Hyderabad. Delhi's Aaramshop.com uses an
altogether different model, not to mention some really smart
thinking. The portal simply offers kirana stores a Web platform to
sell their products online, somewhat like a a virtual superstore.
Thus, with only 12 employees, this e-grocer operates in 25 cities
across India. No sourcing, no stocking, no delivering! The Road
AheadGrateful to have got this far, Local Banya is making plans and
projections for the new year. On the cards are four more
warehouse-cum-distribution centres, in Bhandup, Govandi, Parel and
Borivali, by March 2013. There are no plans to expand their team of
14 delivery boys, who deliver 75-80 orders every weekday.
-
Local Banya also plans to expand operations to other cities in
the next 12 months, and is is already
talking to venture capitalists and other investors. But, in the
e-grocery business, 12 months could be a
lifetime. So New Year wishlist notwithstanding, the start-up is
keeping an eye firmly focused on your
grocery list - a full basket of fresh produce delivered to your
door, and delivered right now!
Challenges and competitors
There is, of course, room for growth. According to consultancy
firm Technopak Advisors, food and groceries account for $343
billion (Rs 15.44 trillion; one trillion equals 100,000 crore), or
68 per cent, of the $505-billion Indian retail market. Within this
category, the organised food and grocery market, estimated at $12
billion, is expected to grow at a compound annual rate of 30 per
cent in the next five years.
That might explain why 26-year-old Ambuj Jhunjhunwala, who
started online supermarket MyGrahak in 2010, wears a confident
smile. The entrepreneur, whose family promotes 6Ten, a 300-store
retail chain, is unfazed that he has three rivals in the National
Capital Region alone (see Grocers Galore, page 72). "The market has
room for everyone," says Ajay Mittal, Director, Ascent Capital. His
company recently invested $10 million in BigBasket, the only
egrocery venture to attract funding.
"If people can buy highly touch-andfeel products like shoes or
apparel online, why not grocery," asks Vaibhav Goel, founder of
three-month-old FamilyKart, which delivers around 20 orders a day
in and around Delhi. E-grocers enjoy some advantages over regular
supermarkets. They save on costs such as rent, store staff, and
managing store inventory in addition to warehouse inventory. Two
years ago, 6Ten closed 25 stores that were not doing well. More
recently, Future Group's Big Bazaar and the More chain, operated by
Aditya Birla Retail, also shut several stores that had turned
unviable. "Delivery costs account for 60 per cent of what we would
incur on rentals, so we save 40 per cent," says Hari Menon,
co-founder of Bangalore-based BigBasket.
One reason why no e-grocery startup other than BigBasket has
managed to raise money is that margins are wafer-thin. "At a gross
margin of 12 to 15 per cent, profitability cannot be more than two
per cent," says Gaurav Saraf, Director of Epiphany Ventures, a
venture capital firm. The gross margin on fast-moving consumer
goods is as low as 14 per cent. On
-
fruit and vegetables, it is around 16 per cent but shelf life is
shorter. This is why many sites, including MyGrahak and FamilyKart,
stay away from fresh produce. BigBasket, however, says it has no
problem. "Fruit and vegetables are procured only on order, except
for those with a longer shelf life, such as potatoes and onions,"
says Menon. "This reduces loss of stock by three to four per
cent."
One of the biggest rivals of e-grocers is the local kirana
store, which offers home delivery in many cities, often within an
hour. But Ascent Capital's Mittal says kirana shops lack the cost
advantages to offer customers the best price, and cannot stock a
wide range of products. BigBasket tries to consolidate orders in a
locality and reach the customer in eight to 24 hours. But is that
enough? Manohar Mason, Managing Director of Pentagon
Communications, a marketing and consulting firm, doesn't think so.
He says: "People can wait for books, but not groceries."
E-grocers are more likely to get repeat purchases than online
retailers of other products. BigBasket says 65 per cent of its
3,000 customers are repeat buyers. But this also means egrocers
must be on their toes. "If you can satisfy a busy customer, you're
in for a huge opportunity," says Mason. Many investors doubt
whether e-grocers can scale up. "This category cannot rely on a
hub-and-spoke model, unlike apparel or electronics," says Mukul
Singhal, Vice President of SAIF Partners, a venture capital firm. A
book or an iPod can be sent by air across the country more easily
than a 10 kg package of groceries.
"To reach Rs 100 crore in revenue, you must be present across
the country," says Epiphany Ventures's Saraf. "Supply chain
challenges are different in Bangalore and Gurgaon. You cannot
replicate your model." So, while Jhunjhunwala expects MyGrahak to
turn profitable by end-2012, he has no expansion plans.
Goel of FamilyKart says scaling up in other cities makes sense
only after it has fully penetrated the area it currently operates
in. But it is debatable whether volumes alone can make a venture
profitable. Started in 2007, Britain's biggest e-grocer, Ocado,
executes more than 9,000 orders a day, but struggles to make a
profit. California-based Webvan started in 1999 and went bankrupt
in 2001. It delivered fresh produce in 26 cities, but ran aground
partly because it could not keep its promise of delivery in 30
minutes.
To boost margins, Indian e-grocers concentrate on monthly rather
than daily purchases. A second strategy is to sell products with
higher margins. Margins on pet food, for instance, can go up to 30
per cent. "The contribution of such items to sales is over six per
cent, and
TRICKY BUSINESS Margins as low as 2% Supply chain hard to
replicate Many items are perishable Scaling up is diffi cult
Competition from big retail
-
we plan to raise it to 15 per cent," says Jhunjhunwala, whose
monthly sales turnover averaged more than Rs 1 crore a month in the
past year.
A third strategy is to sell inhouse brands, which improves
margins by 20 to 25 per cent on staples. "We sell 7,000 SKUs, of
which 300 are our own branded staples," says Menon of BigBasket.
SKU or stockkeeping unit is the retail term for product
identification code.
E-grocers get fewer deliveries returned than other online
sellers - two to three per cent. The overall retail average is over
10 per cent. Most returns are because the customer was not
available to receive the package. Chennai-based e-grocer
Veggibazaar, which sells fresh produce, asks customers to indicate
where orders can be delivered if they are not available - with a
neighbour, maybe, or the security staff.
Perhaps the biggest threat to egrocers is giants such as the
Future Group, which is testing a hybrid model to sell groceries
online and in brick-and-mortar stores. Kashyap Deora, President of
FutureBazaar. com, the group's online arm, which started selling
groceries online in January, says: "We are doing pilots in 30
stores in Mumbai to check the feasibility of shipping online orders
from the stores."
Saraf of Epiphany Ventures cites the success of British retailer
Tesco, which operates offline and online. "It suggests that a
hybrid model works best for grocery," he says. "A startup can't
compete on procurement with a Reliance Retail, which has the entire
supply chain mapped out." Sourcing efficiencies allow big retailers
to offer discounts. BigBasket's Menon is undaunted.
"Once we have volumes, we'll try to move up the supply chain,"
he says. But BigBasket is the only e-grocer with funding. Its
rivals will not be able to expand unless they attract investment.
Newcomers such as FamilyKart are aware the clock is ticking. "We
have a small window of opportunity," says Goel. "In a year we will
have to be at a level where we can survive even if the big guns
enter."
Competition and challenges
Groceries, FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer Goods) are moving online
in this second wave of internet. During first wave of internet era
(1995-2001), there was a WebVan, which closed down within 2
-
years, not without burning $ 1-2B of investors money. Post 2002,
eGrocery made recovery in other parts of world and there were
successful model like Tesco in UK. 2012 saw a bunch of eGroceries
coming to serve us in different parts of India. While ShopVeg
closeddown 2-3 months back, it has not deterred existing players
like LocalBanya, BigBazar andFarmFreshFrenzy to continue to expand
coverage area and SKUs. Aaramshop also has presence in South
Mumbai
BigBasket entersBigBasket boasts of exemplary 2nd time
entrepreneur husband-wife duo K.Ganesh and Meena Ganesh at the helm
of affairs. This January they announced a big ticket investment
$10M [Medianama news] as well from Ascent Capital. Their model of
directly procuring fresh vegetables and grains from farmers and put
it to our doorstep symbolized a great step forward. So, I was
delighted, when I heard their radio ads announcing their advent.
They also have special launch offer for 1st 1000 customers 10% off
for first year. I went on to witness them do deliveries in
Chandivali. They have 7000 SKUs(Source signup email) right now and
serve entire Mumbai.
Delivery man carries a Micromax mobile running Android OS. There
is a built-in enterprise program, in which I was able to view my
order. Then, I entered PIN number assigned to my account over there
to confirm receiving the order. It is really an excellent example
of smartphone usage in enterprise space, as I had tried to look at
in an earlier post.
Heres the comparison table of existing players. Lets see how the
new entrant stands.
eGrocery InventoryArea Coverage SKUs
Time of delivery
Phone order also
Social Media Presence
LocalBanya Own + marketplace model
Mumbai South + Suburbs
3000 (Will be 20000 in March
Next day delivery
No. Phone only for reschedule
*** (Average)
-
except Thane and Navi Mumbai 2013
810-88-44400
aaramshop (http://www.aaramshop.com/)
Marketplace model 774 shops in Mumbai (Dec 2012) (Zero
inventory) South Mumbai 10000 Same day No **** (Good)
BigBazaarhttp://www.bigbazaar.com/
Inventory of 11 shops (as of Dec 2012)+ Warehouse
Mumbai and suburbs 8000 3 days
Yes, 0922-222-1947 ***(Average)
FreshFarmFrenzyhttp://freshfarmfrenzy.com/ Unknown
Chandivali, Powai, Andheri (E),MIDC, JVLR, Ghatkopar(W),
Vikroli(W), Kanjurmarg (W) Unknown 1 day
Yes, 8080 2222
First the pros.
Shopping for groceries is highly convenient. I just can't be
more happier about the time it saves for us.
Cash on delivery - the payment method I prefer for products like
vegetables/fruits where product quality cannot be guaranteed
Friendly return policy - no questions asked. I have returned
vegetables and dairy products a couple of times when I wasn't happy
about the quality. Such occasions were very few, though
Delivery guarantee - when I fix a time slot, they deliver
promptly. Once when it was delayed by 30 minutes, they returned 10%
of the order amount
Vegetables are fruits are very fresh. Bread and Dairy products
are always within the expiry date.
Coming to the product -
very easy-to-use, no clutter, no ads
organized catalog of products. Initially, navigation was a bit
clumsier and one could get lost in the individual product
description page and wouldn't be easy to get back to the category
page. They seem to have fixed it now, with the breadcrumb
display.
Time slot that I have blocked used to get released earlier. Now
they have fixed this problem and I can hold onto a slot for 5
minutes.
Notifications are perfect. I get an email and an SMS as soon as
I place an order. When the order is to be delivered on a particular
day, I get a SMS notification again which is useful
-
Being an early customer, I get a 10% discount on the order
value. That's a good savings for me.
Now, the cons.
When I place an order for a certain list of items, I expect all
the items to be delivered. Many times, there were 2-3 items that
were either unavailable or weren't delivered. If I need to visit a
physical store to buy these items, then the whole purpose of
ordering from an online store gets lost
The other irritating issue is the quantity. I'm not sure if the
delivery guy (or the person who packs the items) even looks at the
quantity of an item ordered. If I order 2 packs of a certain item,
he delivers only one.
Because of these issues, I always go for cash-on-delivery so I
don't have to pay for items that were not delivered
Search box - doesn't give me the items I search for, though the
items are available when you navigate through the menu. For
instance, search for Coconut.
Product names do not support multiple languages
As I mentioned earlier, I get an SMS on the day of delivery but
the SMS doesn't contain the amount that I need to pay. It would be
good to get this data so I can keep the cash ready
My Shopping List - I find this feature to be totally useless. It
is a huge list of items that I have ordered since my first order
with no categories or any form of organization. It can be
categorized based on the same tab structure or based on my
frequency of purchase
Good-to-have feature - An event can be added to my calendar if I
have scheduled a delivery on a specific time slot.
Ability to edit my order placed - Would be good to add/modify a
few items to an existing order. There can be a cut-off time before
which an order can be edited
Order status - orders which have been delivered weeks ago still
show as "Ready to ship". What's the purpose of this status
then?
Last but not the least - the plastic trays they use for packing
vegetables and fruits look trendy and neat but also a serious
concern to our environment. I would be more than happy to return
those trays if they can reuse them.
What are the modes of payment?You can pay for your order on
BigBasket.com using the following modes of payment:a. Cash on
deliveryb. Credit and debit cards (VISA / Mastercard / American
Express)c. Sodexo passes on delivery (only for food items)
Are there any other charges or taxes in addition to the price
shown? Is VAT added to the invoice?The VAT is included in the MRP
of products. There are no additional taxes added by Bigbasket to
your order. The prices you see on our product pages are the prices
you pay. There is a delivery charge of Rs. 20 (Bangalore &
Hyderabad) Rs. 25 (Mumbai) on orders below Rs. 1000.
When will I receive my order?Once you are done selecting your
products and click on checkout you will be prompted to select
delivery slot. Your order will be delivered to you on the day and
slot selected by you. If we are unable to deliver
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the order during the specified time duration (this sometimes
happens due to unforeseen situations) we will credit 10% of your
order value to your BigBasket account.
How are the fruits and vegetables packaged?Fresh fruits and
vegetables are hand picked, hand cleaned and hand packed in
reusable plastic trays covered with cling. We ensure hygienic and
careful handling of all our products.
Delivery is free for orders above Rs. 1000. For any orders below
that we charge Rs. 20 (Bangalore & Hyderabad) Rs. 25 (Mumbai)
as a delivery fee.
How can I track delivery of my order?You will be intimated via
sms and email at every stage of your order processing, right from
order confirmation till the dispatch.
What is the minimum order for delivery?There is no minimum order
for delivery but we charge a nominal delivery charge of Rs20
(Bangalore & Hyderabad) and Rs25 (Mumbai) for orders below
Rs1000 in value.What is a cut-off time and what are the
corresponding cut-off timing for each slot?Cut off time is the time
after which the order gets processed for delivery. After this time
you will not be able to modify or cancel your order.Cut off time
for same day delivery is 6am and cut off time for next day delivery
is 1 pm.
Can I add products after the cut off time for a slot?No, you
will not be able to make any changes to your order after the cut
off time for your selected slot. However, if you do not wish to buy
a product you may return it at the time of delivery and the amount
will be credited to your BigBasket account.
When and how can I cancel an order?You can cancel an order
before the cut off time of your slot (1 pm for evening slots and 6
am for morning slots) by contacting our customer support team.
What do I do if an item is defective (broken, leaking,
expired)?We have a no questions asked return policy. In case you
are not satisfied with a product received you can return it to the
delivery personnel at time of delivery or you can contact our
customer support team and we will do the needful.
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I am a corporate/ business. Can I place orders with
bigbasket.com?Yes, we do bulk supply of products at special prices
to institutions such as schools, restaurants and corporates. Please
contact as at [email protected] to know more.
Personal InformationInnovative Retail Concepts Pvt Ltd is the
licensed owner of the brand BigBasket.com and thewebsite
bigbasket.com. IRCPL respects your privacy. This Privacy Policy
provides succinctlythe manner your data is collected and used by
BigBasket.com. You are advised to please read thePrivacy Policy
carefully. By accessing the services provided by BigBasket.com you
agree to thecollection and use of your data by BigBasket.com in the
manner provided in this Privacy Policy.
Services overviewAs part of our registration process we may
collect the following personally identifiableinformation about you:
name including first and last name alternate email address
mobilephone number and contact details Postal code demographic
profile (like your age, gender,occupation, education, address etc)
may also collect the following information: about the pages on our
site you visit/access the links you click on our site the number of
times you access the page.
EligibilityServices of BigBasket.com would be available to only
select geographies in India. Persons who are "incompetent to
contract" within the meaning of the Indian Contract Act, 1872
including un-discharged insolvents etc. are not eligible to use the
Site. If you are a minor i.e. under the age of 18 years but at
least 13 years of age you may use this Website only under the
supervision of a parent or legal guardian who agrees to be bound by
these Terms of Use. If your age is below that of 18 years your
parents or legal guardians can transact on behalf of you if they
are registered users. You are prohibited from purchasing any
material which is for adult consumption the sale or purchase of
which to/by minors are strictly prohibited.
License & site accessBigBasket.com grants you a limited
license to access and make personal use of this site and not to
download (other than page caching) or modify it, or any portion of
it, except with express written consent of BigBasket.com. This
license does not include any resale or commercial use of this site
or its contents; any collection and use of any product listings,
descriptions, or prices; any derivative use of this site or its
contents; any downloading or copying of account information for the
benefit of another merchant; or any use of data mining, robots, or
similar data gathering and extraction tools. This site or any
portion of this site may not be reproduced, duplicated, copied,
sold, resold, visited, or otherwise exploited for any commercial
purpose without express written consent of BigBasket.com. You may
not frame or utilize framing techniques to enclose any trademark,
logo, or other proprietary information (including images, text,
page layout, or form) of BigBasket.com and our affiliates without
express written consent. You may not use any meta tags or any other
"hidden text" utilizing BigBasket.com's name or trademarks without
the express written consent of BigBasket.com. Any unauthorized use
terminates the permission or license granted by BigBasket.com.
Account & Registration Obligations
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All shoppers would have to register and login for placing orders
on BigBasket.com. After registration you may decide to shop by
becoming a member or as a non-member. You have to keep your account
and registration details current and correct. If you relocate to a
new complex where BigBasket.com does not provides its services then
you should inform us by writing to [email protected].
We will make necessary amendments to your customer status and
refund unused membership fee if any.
PricingAll the products listed on BigBasket.com will be sold at
MRP unless otherwise specified. The prices mentioned at the time of
ordering are the indicative prices and the applicable prices will
be the actual prices on the date of the delivery. Although prices
of most of the products do not fluctuate on a daily basis but some
of the commodities and fresh food prices do change on a daily
basis. Since you can place an order upto 30 days in advance from
the actual delivery date we need to accommodate for these price
fluctuations and therefore any difference in the bill value on the
date of placing the order and the bill value as per the prices
applicable on the date of delivery will be collected / refunded in
cash at the time of the delivery of the order.
Cancellation by BigBasket.com / CustomerYou as a customer can
cancel your order anytime upto the cutoff time by calling our
customer service and we will refund any payments already made by
you for the order. If we suspect any fraudulent transaction by any
customer or any transaction which defies the terms & conditions
of using the website, we at our sole discretion could cancel such
orders. We will maintain a negative list of all fraudulent
transactions and customers and would deny access to them or cancel
any orders placed by them.
Return & RefundsWe have a "no questions asked return and
refund policy" which entitles all our members to return the product
at the time of delivery if due to some reason they are not
satisfied with the quality or freshness of the product. We will
take the returned product back with us and so it will save you the
hassle of sending the product back to us through post / courier. We
will issue a credit note for the value of the return products which
can be used to pay your subsequent shopping bills.
You Agree and Confirm
1. That in the event that a non-delivery occurs on account of a
mistake by you (i.e. wrong name or address or any other wrong
information) any extra cost incurred by BigBasket.com for
redelivery shall be claimed from you.2. That you will use the
services provided by BigBasket.com, its affiliates, consultants and
contracted companies, for lawful purposes only and comply with all
applicable laws and regulations while using the Website and
transacting on the Site.3. You will provide authentic and true
information in all instances where such information is requested of
you. BigBasket.com reserves the right to confirm and validate the
information and other details provided by you at any point of time.
If upon confirmation your details are found not to be true (wholly
or partly), we have the right in its sole discretion to reject the
registration and debar you from using the Services and / or other
affiliated websites without prior intimation whatsoever.
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4. That you are accessing the services available on this Website
and transacting at your sole risk and are using your best and
prudent judgment before entering into any transaction through this
Website5. That the address at which delivery of the product ordered
by you is to be made will be correct and proper in all respects.6.
That before placing an order you will check the product description
carefully. By placing an order for a product you agree to be bound
by the conditions of sale included in the item's description.
You may not use the Website for any of the following
purposes:
1. Disseminating any unlawful, harassing, libelous, abusive,
threatening, harmful, vulgar, obscene, or otherwise objectionable
material.2. Transmitting material that encourages conduct that
constitutes a criminal offence results in civil liability or
otherwise breaches any relevant laws, regulations or code of
practice.3. Gaining unauthorized access to other computer
systems.4. Interfering with any other person's use or enjoyment of
the Site.5. Breaching any applicable laws;6. Interfering or
disrupting networks or web sites connected to the Site.7. Making,
transmitting or storing electronic copies of materials protected by
copyright without the permission of the owner.
ColoursWe have made every effort to display the colours of our
products that appear on the Website as accurately as possible.
However, as the actual colours you see will depend on your monitor,
we cannot guarantee that your monitor's display of any colour will
be accurate.
Modification of Terms & Conditions of ServiceBigBasket.com
may at any time modify the Terms & Conditions of Use of the
Website without any prior notification to you. You can access the
latest version of these Terms & Conditions at any given time on
BigBasket.com. You should regularly review the Terms &
Conditions on BigBasket.com. In the event the modified Terms &
Conditions is not acceptable to you, you should discontinue using
the Service. However, if you continue to use the Service you shall
be deemed to have agreed to accept and abide by the modified Terms
& Conditions of Use of this site.
Governing Law and JurisdictionThis User Agreement shall be
construed in accordance with the applicable laws of India. The
Courts at Bangalore shall have exclusive jurisdiction in any
proceedings arising out of this agreement.
Any dispute or difference either in interpretation or otherwise,
of any terms of this User Agreement between the parties hereto, the
same shall be referred to an independent arbitrator who will be
appointed by Innovative Retail Concepts Pvt Ltd. and his decision
shall be final and binding on the parties hereto. The above
arbitration shall be in accordance with the Arbitration and
Conciliation Act, 1996 as amended from time to time. The
arbitration shall be held in Bangalore. The High Court of
judicature at Bangalore alone shall have the jurisdiction and the
Laws of India shall apply.
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Reviews, Feedback, SubmissionsAll reviews, comments, feedback,
postcards, suggestions, ideas, and other submissions disclosed,
submitted or offered to BigBasket.com on or by this Website or
otherwise disclosed, submitted or offered in connection with your
use of this Website (collectively, the "Comments") shall be and
remain our property. Such disclosure, submission or offer of any
Comments shall constitute an assignment to BigBasket.com of all
worldwide rights, titles and interests in all copyrights and other
intellectual properties in the Comments. Thus, BigBasket.com owns
exclusively all such rights, titles and interests and shall not be
limited in any way in its use, commercial or otherwise, of any
Comments. BigBasket.com will be entitled to use, reproduce,
disclose, modify, adapt, create derivative works from, publish,
display and distribute any Comments you submit for any purpose
whatsoever, without restriction and without compensating you in any
way. BigBasket.com is and shall be under no obligation (1) to
maintain any Comments in confidence; (2) to pay you any
compensation for any Comments; or (3) to respond to any Comments.
You agree that any Comments submitted by you to the Website will
not violate this policy or any right of any third party, including
copyright, trademark, privacy or other personal or proprietary
right(s), and will not cause injury to any person or entity. You
further agree that no Comments submitted by you to the Website will
be or contain libellous or otherwise unlawful, threatening, abusive
or obscene material, or contain software viruses, political
campaigning, commercial solicitation, chain letters, mass mailings
or any form of "spam".
BigBasket.com does not regularly review posted Comments, but
does reserve the right (but not the obligation) to monitor and edit
or remove any Comments submitted to the Site. You grant
BigBasket.com the right to use the name that you submit in
connection with any Comments. You agree not to use a false email
address, impersonate any person or entity, or otherwise mislead as
to the origin of any Comments you submit. You are and shall remain
solely responsible for the content of any Comments you make and you
agree to indemnify BigBasket.com and its affiliates for all claims
resulting from any Comments you submit. BigBasket.com and its
affiliates take no responsibility and assume no liability for any
Comments submitted by you or any third party.
Copyright & TrademarkBigBasket.com and its suppliers and
licensors expressly reserve all intellectual property rights in all
text, programs, products, processes, technology, content and other
materials, which appear on this Site. Access to this Website does
not confer and shall not be considered as conferring upon anyone
any license under any of BigBasket.com or any third party's
intellectual property rights. All rights, including copyright, in
this website are owned by or licensed to IRCPL. Any use of this
website or its contents, including copying or storing it or them in
whole or part, other than for your own personal, non-commercial use
is prohibited without the permission of IRCPL. You may not modify,
distribute or re-post anything on this website for any purpose.
The BigBasket.com names and logos and all related product and
service names, design marks and slogans are the trademarks or
service marks of Innovative Retail Concepts Pvt Ltd. All other
marks are the property of their respective companies. No trademark
or service mark license is granted in connection with the materials
contained on this Site. Access to this Website does not authorize
anyone to use any name, logo or mark in any manner.
References on this Website to any names, marks, products or
services of third parties or hypertext links to third party sites
or information are provided solely as a convenience to you and do
not in any way
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constitute or imply BigBasket.com endorsement, sponsorship or
recommendation of the third party, information, product or
service.
BigBasket.com is not responsible for the content of any third
party sites and does not make any representations regarding the
content or accuracy of material on such sites. If you decide to
link to any such third party websites, you do so entirely at your
own risk.
All materials, including images, text, illustrations, designs,
icons, photographs, programs, music clips or downloads, video clips
and written and other materials that are part of this Website
(collectively, the "Contents") are intended solely for personal,
non-commercial use. You may download or copy the Contents and other
downloadable materials displayed on the Website for your personal
use only. No right, title or interest in any downloaded materials
or software is transferred to you as a result of any such
downloading or copying. You may not reproduce (except as noted
above), publish, transmit, distribute, display, modify, create
derivative works from, sell or participate in any sale of or
exploit in any way, in whole or in part, any of the Contents, the
Website or any related software. All software used on this Website
is the property of BigBasket.com or their suppliers and protected
by Indian and international copyright laws. The Contents and
software on this Website may be used only as a shopping resource.
Any other use, including the reproduction, modification,
distribution, transmission, republication, display, or performance,
of the Contents on this Website is strictly prohibited. Unless
otherwise noted, all Contents are copyrights, trademarks, trade
dress and/or other intellectual property owned, controlled or
licensed by BigBasket.com ,one of its affiliates or by third
parties who have licensed their materials to BigBasket.com and are
protected by Indian and international copyright laws. The
compilation (meaning the collection, arrangement, and assembly) of
all Contents on this Website is the exclusive property of
BigBasket.com and is also protected by Indian and international
copyright laws.
Objectionable MaterialYou understand that by using this Website
or any services provided on the Site, you may encounter Content
that may be deemed by some to be offensive, indecent, or
objectionable, which Content may or may not be identified as such.
You agree to use the Website and any service at your sole risk and
that to the fullest extent permitted under applicable law,
BigBasket.com and its affiliates shall have no liability to you for
Content that may be deemed offensive, indecent, or objectionable to
you.
IndemnityYou agree to defend, indemnify and hold harmless
BigBasket.com, its employees, directors, officers, agents and their
successors and assigns from and against any and all claims,
liabilities, damages, losses, costs and expenses, including
attorney's fees, caused by or arising out of claims based upon your
actions or inactions, which may result in any loss or liability to
BigBasket.com or any third party including but not limited to
breach of any warranties, representations or undertakings or in
relation to the non-fulfilment of any of your obligations under
this User Agreement or arising out of the your violation of any
applicable laws, regulations including but not limited to
Intellectual Property Rights, payment of statutory dues and taxes,
claim of libel, defamation, violation of rights of privacy or
publicity, loss of service by other subscribers and infringement of
intellectual property or other rights. This clause shall survive
the expiry or termination of this User Agreement.
Termination
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This User Agreement is effective unless and until terminated by
either you or BigBasket.com. You may terminate this User Agreement
at any time, provided that you discontinue any further use of this
Site. BigBasket.com may terminate this User Agreement at any time
and may do so immediately without notice, and accordingly deny you
access to the Site, Such termination will be without any liability
to BigBasket.com. Upon any termination of the User Agreement by
either you or BigBasket.com, you must promptly destroy all
materials downloaded or otherwise obtained from this Site, as well
as all copies of such materials, whether made under the User
Agreement or otherwise. BigBasket.com 's right to any Comments
shall survive any termination of this User Agreement. Any such
termination of the User Agreement shall not cancel your obligation
to pay for the product already ordered from the Website or affect
any liability that may have arisen under the User Agreement.
Bigbasket.comhas ranked#33,351in the world according
toAlexawebsite ranking. Bigbasket.com has Google pagerank#3. The
estimated website net worth based on it's traffic value and online
website advertisement revenue alone is around$72,232. Bigbasket.com
receives32,983pageviews per day and generates nearly$98.95in daily
ad revenue. Bigbasket.com has recently shown a3.24%in growthin the
traffic rank. The average page load time is1seconds, which is
faster than62%of sites around the world. Bigbasket.com haswebsite
backlinksfrom#163website. Bigbasket.com has a popular site score
rating of2out of 5 Stars. Bigbasket.com appears to be hosted
inSingapore. Bigbasket.com hosted onlinode.com.Delivery
InformationDelivery slot:Order Cutoff time:Delivery Charges:
BigBasket enters